Write Stuff

I just got my first invitation to friendship, although I'm not sure how well matched my new buddy and I are. My new friend has a name that tells of a love affair with confectionary, and such a thing is completely innaporopriate for me. Why? I am diabetic and unable to partake of such delicacies as chocolate.

That set me thinking about how easy it could be to call someone a friend when reality may show you to be at opposite ends of the spectrum, and I thought some words of introduction may be appropriate in the hope of saving any future misunderstandings or embarrasments.

I’m currently 59 physically, 16-20 mentally and a disabled headbanger. I am not in a wheelchair, but I do have mobility problems due to some unfortunate medical conditions. I suffer chronic back pain (yes, that old chestnut!), neurological pain (a different chestnut!), tinnitus (a hard to spell chestnut), and have a huge (a VERY BIG chestnut) incisional hernia that makes it feel like I am seasick when I walk and makes my waist appear 5 times bigger than it is.

I was a chef for the most part of my working life (35 years), and a head chef for 10 years - before the medic’s got hold of me and began to practice their evil arts.

What matters to me in my life can be categorised fairly efficiently:
Religion:
I started watching and supporting Chelsea FC in 1952, and have never once faltered from being a True Blue. I support the club, the shirt, and the badge, rather than just because of any recent success.
Music:
Heavy Metal is my mug of coffee; I like, in no particular order, Meatloaf, Bon Jovi, Status Quo, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Led Zeppelin, Saxon, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Helloween, Def Leppard, Skid Row, Scorpions, Aerosmith, Magnum, Queen, The Darkness, Uriah Heep, Kiss, Billy Idol and many more I can’t bring to mind right now.
However, I also like Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Foreigner, Clannad, Mason Proffit, Mike and the Mechanics, The Eagles, The Moody Blues, Toto, Van Morrison, John Cougar Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Boston, Travelling Wilbury’s, Chicago, Billy Joel and many, many more.
Books:I am a fantasy fiction nut, have been since I was 12 and discovered The Hobbit – I do not lump fantasy in with Horror or Science Fiction, I see it as a separate genre. Favourite fantasy writers include,
JRR Tolkien, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, Robin Hobb, Guy Gavriel Kay, Piers Anthony, Robert Faulcon, Mark Chadbourn, David Eddings, David Gemmel, Robert Carter.
Other favourite authors include
Jack Higgins, Clive Cussler, Dan Brown, Dale Brown, Dennis Wheatley, Tom Clancy, and many more.
Beliefs:I am a practising Pagan, having been a Wiccan all my life – both as a solo and a group practitioner.
Leisure Interests:
Television, reading, writing (fantasy fiction and poetry), horseracing, carp fishing (when someone will take me and carry all my gear), quizzes and general knowledge games of all levels ( I have appeared on Countdown and 15 to 1 twice, and tried to get on many more), computing and the internet.
Sports & Hobbies:
Football, cricket, darts, snooker, horseracing, American football – as a viewer only I hasten to add.
My only real hobbies are writing, recently taken up watercolour painting, and putting the world to rights through philosophising.
I like to think that I may have a sense of humour hidden about me somewhere, I have an opinion on just about everything and I am a fair communicator – I also tend to be a good judge of people. I could bore for England some times and enlighten on others – in other words I am a normal bloke who likes to get on with people – and I’ll talk to anyone about anything.

I’ve had some success in being published as a fishing writer, probably more than my talent deserves, and I have completed one third of a fantasy trilogy and a do-it-yourself book on speed ratings for racehorses. My successes have all been in limited fields – poetry and magazine articles – and I’d like to get the confidence in my ability to attempt to get fiction published. Punctuation and grammar are the things I need to master most – I can write an A4 page before using a full stop.

I study with The Open University because I like studying and learning new thoughts and concepts; the brain is a muscle and needs to be used or it deteriorates. Concentration also helps to take the mind off pain. I struggle through most courses in search of a subject that I can take on to level 3 - because most level 2 courses so far have frightened the life out of me – even though I have passed some. I get discouraged easily when I struggle and pain returns with a vengeance to provide a distraction from study.

If - having read all this and not become bored rigid - you would wish to know any more please visit:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dj.benham/template.html There are some really fabulous - to my mind - pictures there that are worth seeing.
or visit http://www.darkhorseratings.co.uk/ to learn more about my racing philosophy.

That's enough for now, I'm tired and need a rest.

So many posts in one day, so it must be immediately obvious that they have been written previously - and they all have. I've had to move them though because the blog I was using has not allowed me to make any changes or add any more comments for over a week now. Every attempt at communicating has been met by silence, so I decided to move the whole thing and begin again.
Problem there being how difficult it is to get everything right first time. You choose a template not realising that you can't change it if you don't like it - and end up stuck with one you don't really care for.
Must be a sign of my age catching up with me. Normally I am pretty good with new technology, and have published and updated my own website for some years now. I do suffer from some age-related aversions though - not speaking in shorthand being the important one to remember.
I am a person, not a text-translator - so please speak to me rather than text me and expect me to understand. English is a wonderfully expressive language, so please take the time to write it - and read it - slowly and properly, to be certain that your meaning is understood.
Humour me if you must, look down on me if you wish, call me an old whatever if you feel that way, pity me even, but if you have something to say - please say it rather than expect me to translate it for you.

I've had to give up with the hope of professional input or opinion regarding my plot idea. I will either have to make it up as I go along, or 'invent' some new substance or potion which will make the plot possible.
I really didn't want to take this route, but every expert site on the web has no expert willing to talk to me about my plot ideas. I'm not sure I apportion any blame, I'd be just as suspicious myself. I thought I was getting somewhere, but then got another knockback - if I had previously sold a blockbuster I would probably have to fight off people wanting to appear in my thank you notes.
Such is life....

I have at last had a response in my 'search for an expert', only to be told that my request has been passed to the correct department - and that I can expect to hear something in the next 10 days or so!!

Of the other enquiries sent out I have heard nothing as yet, so I am no further forward. How do you check your facts when you are an unpublished author? There must be some way that I can do this.....

More when it happens.

To bring you up-to-date, I have a working title - which is so clever that I feel it is best kept secret for now, as I don't want too many advance copies being ordered!

I have a theme based around a terrorist plot, and a couple of sub-plots to divert attention from the real deal.

I have charcterised my cast and have a 'hero' that I hope is likeably different and unusual.

I have crafted the opening chapters and am well into creating the story. However, I now need to know if my plot is feasible before I go too far - in case I have to change my approach.

That is proving to be a real pain in the rear portion of my anatomy. I have approached so many 'experts' and academics, but not one has replied - not even so much as an acknowledgement. I didn't expect it to be easy, but I also didn't think it would be this hard.

I can't say that I am surprised though. If you got a letter, out of the blue, from a guy you've never heard of asking for technical details about a terrorist plans feasibility, what would you do? I've tried the internet, books, I've googled my fingers to the bone almost, and the search goes on.

I'd bet though, that if I had signed the letter with a name like Clive Cussler or Jack Higgins, I wouldn't have been treated in the same fashion.

You begin to get ambition; time is running out - rather than stretching out ahead of you like an open road. Suddenly, the time to do all those things you promised to get around to doing one day is immediately. If they are ever to get done then first thing to do is get started. That's what I am doing, making a start. The end, if it ever happens, is to write a book before I am 60.

I have always written, and will probably always write, but I have serious doubts about how good I am - or if the word good should be used in close proximity to what I write. I have a very ascerbic humour that is usually directed at myself rather than at others, and a huge belief in myself that I will never amount to anything - but I will never stop dreaming.

The prime purpose behind my use of this space is for somewhere to go when writers block bites, or when I need time to examine my own thoughts about an aspect of writing that I may want to seek opinion on. We all have problems, but a writers problems can be very different to those you have previously met -so you may find it entertaining to enjoy my hardships.

I have no idea where this will go or where it will end. It began because I was looking for information - and found what I needed in a blog. That gave me the impetus to create my own, in the hope that I may one day help someone else.

I'm a wanna-be, would be, writer. I like writing. I enjoy writing. Words are precious to me, and can be used to create wonderfully descriptive pictures. Right now I've arrived at a moment in time where I feel it is time to stop putting off getting started and make a start. How? That's the question. Do you just write, can you learn to write - or are writers born? This is my record of my attempt to find out.